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Morning News

'Car & Driver': NASCAR Legend Dale Earnhardt 'Looked Like He Was Almost Going to Save That Crash'

Aired February 19, 2001 - 10:08 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it is a sport that is dangerous, as auto racing, death often brings with it a measure of immortality, a grim reminder of the sport's dangers and sometimes horrible costs. But Earnhardt's legacy is underlined by a lifetime of achievement, a lifelong refusal to passively accept anything but the best.

Joining us now is Csaba Csere, editor and chief for "Car & Driver" magazine for 20 years. He first met Earnhardt when Earnhardt was a young driver, first making a name for himself.

Csaba, good to see you. Thanks for being with us this morning.

CSABA CSERE, "CAR & DRIVER": My pleasure.

KAGAN: Tell us more about that first impression upon that first meeting.

CSERE: Well, he was a larger-than-life character even then. I mean, Dale was physically a big guy. He was about 6'2", 180, 190 pounds. And he just kind of filled your perspective with his personality and with his size. He was a very friendly guy, but he clearly loved the racing. He was a guy who worked his way into racing from the bottom. Although his father had been a driver, he was not a super-successful driver, so Earnhardt did not grow up wealthy. And he had to start from the bottom and earn everything he got in racing.

KAGAN: We want to get more onto the empire that he built in just a moment. First, though, the crash. As we were just talking about here on the set, the first word you think of is "unspectacular." You can't believe that this is the one he didn't walk away from.

CSERE: Well, when you're running 180, 185 miles per hour, it's -- anything can happen and it's very hard to analyze the real forces you undergo in the crash. It did not look like a terribly bad one because it isn't as if he ran into the concrete wall head on at 180 miles per hour. But the fact is, he got turned into the wall by the second impact of the car hitting him.

Earnhardt looked like he was almost going to save that crash. He did a -- he first got tipped, he got sideways, he did a bit of a correction. But then the other car hit him, forcing him nose first into the wall. And you get that hard, forward jolt and apparently his neck broke, and that's what killed him instantly. KAGAN: Yes, and an autopsy is being performed today, so we should know a little bit more than that.

You also bring up a good point: Unless you've seen a car race, whether its NASCAR or Formula One, another in person, you can't appreciate how fast these guys are going.

CSERE: Well, no. They're going a tremendous speed. And, you know, they're going at this tremendous speed for over three hours. And anything can happen. We saw in the earlier crash how one car took off and started tumbling. Keep in mind these guys -- these cars are going faster than the takeoff speed of an airliner...

KAGAN: OK, that gives some perspective.

CSERE: ... so they get sideways, they get airborne.

KAGAN: That makes it, of course, very dangerous. And what -- a topic that's coming up again and again for NASCAR is safety. A lot of talk this morning about a device that Dale Earnhardt was not wearing, this HANS, this head and neck safety device. He chose not to wear it, but there are drivers out there who are.

CSERE: Well, in many ways, it's a bit of a tradeoff in comfort. Earnhardt didn't like the way this device felt. He also, for example, wore an open-face helmet as opposed to a closed helmet, because, you know, you're in this car for three hours plus, it's very hot in the car no matter what the temperature is outside, because a lot of the heat of the engine is coming through, and maintaining your comfort over the course of the race is really important to keeping control of the car and staying alert.

He made a decision in this case not to wear that device. And perhaps, in retrospect, that was an error. And we'll see if NASCAR does something about it because this is the fourth fairly similar fatality in the past 12 months or so. So I think they have to examine that issue very carefully and see if they have to make this mandatory.

KAGAN: Quickly, Csaba, his legacy both on the track and also as a very successful businessman.

CSERE: Well, he was the all-time money winner in NASCAR.

KAGAN: Forty-one million dollar, I think.

CSERE: Forty-one million dollars. No one has won more than that. And this is part of the fact that he won his 17 championships during the richest period of NASCAR. He owned three other teams. Both his son in front of him and the winner, Michael Waltrip, were driving cars owned by Dale Earnhardt. He invested in car dealerships and everyplace else.

He basically showed how you did it. And the beauty of it was that even though he had this enormous amount of money and this huge business empire, he was still hungry for a win. He was going to go after his eighth championship this year, which would have made him the winningest champion in NASCAR history.

KAGAN: And instead the record books will stay as they are, tied with Mr. Petty.

CSERE: Absolutely. But he demonstrated what a -- he was a money driver. You know, he had 76 wins, which was basically only about a third of what Richard Petty had. Yet they both ended up with seven champions -- championships. Earnhardt knew when to win, knew when he had to win and could put those wins together to the best effect. He was just an incredible competitor on the track.

KAGAN: He we will be one to study for years to come. Csaba Csera with "Car & Driver," thanks for stopping by.

CSERE: My pleasure.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: As big as he was, still accessible. Big key there.

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